Say one works for an entity (Pentagon? A state or municipal agency? A large corporation?) with more money than sense, and your agency or company has an open account with Sony as an ‘approved provider’. This tracks back to the old mini-computer or early random PC days (pre-PC’s as a commodity) when setup and service really mattered, and reflects both institutional inertia and, of course, the self-interest of the preferred providers.

Did I mention that these providers somehow magically hire guys from agency / corporate purchasing as they revolve out the door?

So meanwhile, 3-4 people a day come in the store, but what they ‘buy’ (with taxpayer / corporate money) is equipment that is overpriced, with huge relative margins.

Remember “ReGo”, the ‘reinventing government’ emphasis headed up by Nobel Prize and Oscar winner Al Gore? One of the small things they put in place was allowing federal workers to purchase ‘stuff’ from Staples and OfficeMax rather than waiting 2 weeks to pay double from a federal approved purchaser. Want to bet how far that’s been rolled back?

Mac advertises in PC because when somebody’s crappy Vaio gives them another blue screen of death, they suddenly find themselves looking at the back of the magazine and thinking “That’s right. A Mac.”

Sort of like, if you’ll forgive the return to political talk, Dean and Emanuel’s strategy of spending money in traditionally red districts to try and turn them blue. “Tired of your crappy Republican Congressman? Try Brand Democrat.”

I’m sure there’s some market research that goes into these decisions, but I’ll be damned if I know what those results show. I’m sure both mags are happy to take the money regardless.